With the development of communications technology such as wireless access networks (WiFi, UMTS, 3G) it is now possible to receive video images at client devices, such as mobile telephones and the like. Communicating the video images can be via an internet communications network, using an internet protocol, which may be adapted to use a quality of service to ensure a low latency and predictable internet protocol packet jitter and packet loss. Steaming the video images in this way is known as Internet Protocol Television (IP TV). However, streaming video images over an internet communications link provides a technical challenge, because the nature of internet communications can provide a constraint on a communications bandwidth, which is available to stream the video and can cause a loss of data as a result of IP packets being dropped.
Broadcasting live events can also provide a technical challenge, because a time available to compression encode video signals of the event is limited. Furthermore it is desirable to provide, as far as possible, an improvement in a viewer's appreciation of an event when viewed from video images produced in real-time or non-real time. In order to improve a viewer's experience of an event viewed from video images, several cameras can be used and positioned around a sporting stadium to view the event from different positions and angles. Furthermore, so called player cams can be used to concentrate on capturing the actions of particular players. However, deploying several cameras to cover an event can be expensive and furthermore integrating the video images produced by each camera can represent a complex task. Furthermore, how ever many cameras are employed, there may still be a requirement to view event from a position at which there is no camera.
Therefore, it will be appreciated that communicating video images representing a live event, such as a sporting event, to client devices using a limited communications bandwidth can represent a technical problem.